By Mizan Rahman
More than 101,700 Bangladeshis will perform the haj this year as the cabinet yesterday approved the draft of the National Haj and Umrah Policy, 1435 Hijri (2014) and the Haj Package, 2014, making changes in the existing Haj policy by adding Umrah policy to it.
The approval was given at the regular weekly meeting of the cabinet held at the Bangladesh Secretariat in Dhaka with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, cabinet secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said that the proposed Umrah policy has been added to the existing Haj policy.
He said that a total of 101,758 Bangladeshis will
perform the Haj this year.
Of them, he said, some 10,000 pilgrims will perform the Haj under the government arrangement, while 91,758 under
the private arrangement.
Under the government management, there will be two packages. In the package one, the total cost will stand at about 354,316 taka while the package two comes at cost of 295,776 taka.
For both the packages, the cost of qurbani (animal sacrifice) of around 10,500 taka will be added to the total amount.
In case of private arrangement, the minimum cost should not be less than 295,776 taka so that minimum facilities could be ensured for the pilgrims.
The cabinet secretary said that the number of Haj pilgrims is less this year than the previous one as the Saudi government has reduced the quota for haj pilgrims by 20% due to massive renovation works at the Haram Sharif.
According to the Saudi government, Eid-ul-Azha will be celebrated on October 4 this year in Saudi Arabia subject to the sighting of moon.
